Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-02-20

uian lOnfuaiibt, hbyut c.s~
rs Mr.. Brisbane. She was good look
ing, well formed, stylish in dress, and
brilliant in conversation. Mr.. Brisbane
was looking for teacher and governess
for his two children, and what was more
natural than that this lady should be
engaged for that position A few months
after the philosopher and his governess
were married and they disappeared from
Washington.
A FUNNY BRIDAL TOUR.
A month or two later Ireceiyed let
ter from friend who was IN London,
but who the preceding winter had fire.
ouently been at Mr.. Brisbane's house
in Washington. II contained the fol-
lowing passage "By the way, met
Miss B. at one Of the American
banking-houses yesterday. | was sur
prised, and after some conversation
asked her what brought her to London.
She said she was here on her wedding
journey. / had not heard of her mar
rage, and inquired who her husband
was. She replied, "Albert Brisbane"
You can imagine was astonished, and
before parting with her Iasked her what
her hotel was, and remarked that l
shonld take pleasure in calling upon
Mr.. Brisbane.
"But he didn't come she said.
"What said /.
"Oh, his business in New York pre-
vented him from coming, she said.
II oil m
that dashing, fascinating young wo-
man, scarcely o month bride, travel
ling over Europe on her wedding
journey, while her aged bridegroom is
at home in New York looking after
business !"
SPLENDID TEMPLES OF TRADE.
What is termed the building "boom,"
which began in New York last year,
continues undated. Multitudes of
stately French flats, beautiful man
sions, and magnificent business palaces
are being erected. In New York the
business structures attain greater
height than anywhere else in the world.
Some are $50 feet to the roof and
others 225 feet to the top of the towers
which surmount them; 150 feet is
much higher than the ordinary church
steeple, and 225 feet is higher than
any in the United States, with
the exception of perhaps a score Of
sacred edifices. The Produce Exchange
tower, or campanile, looms 225 feet
above ancient Bowling Green, and that
on the Western Union building, on high
erground, seems to reach nearly the same
altitude. The new Petroleum Exchange,
to be finished next, will cost half mil
lion of dollars, and will be a much finer
building than the Stock Exchange, a
dark, gloomy, and incommodious struc-
ture, gilded folly on which hundreds
of Thousands have been wasted. Another
superb structure is being erected in AL
rich court, on Broadway just opposite
Exchange Place. New York has few
of these rather quaint courts, which
suggest old London. Every resource is
exhausted in the construction of these
L palatial business buildings their foun-
dations are laid forty feet below the
level of the street, and the masonry is as
solid as that of an old Roman aque-
duct. Where the soil seemsto be yield
ing piles are driven down; they are from
thirty to forty feet in length, being the
trunks of trees brought from New
Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The Pro-
duce Exchange rests on Is, 437 of these
trees. so that the brokers are trading on
the top of an old forest. In these fine
structures there are usually two com
pleted stories below the street and
above this rise eight or ten stories more.
Rents are enormous; the buildings pay
from to per cent, and in one case at
least, understand, 10 per cent on the
money invested. The well-known Mills
building, on Broad street, cost 81, 700,
600. Thirteen buildings were torn
down to secure its site. 1t was erected
by d. o. Mills, once hack-driver
and now worth Sl0,000,00O. The
total amount of rent derived frop
this magnificent building approx.
mates $500, 600 year. Here are the
offices of G. p. Huntington, ID. o.
Mills, and other California and trans
continental magnates, as well as such
bankers and brokers as the Seligmans,
Henry Clews, President James Smith,
of the Stock Exchange /; the Kisams,
brothers of Mrs. William H. Wander
bilt, and others. Henry Clews, L be-
lieve, pays So a square foot for his
splendid offices, the finest and most ele-
gantly fitted up of any broker of stocks
or grain in the metropolis, and which
cost him about 0,000 year. This
enormous rent does not seem large to a
man who made 81 600, 900 last year.
REMARKABLE BUILDINGS.
The halls in some of these CONNER.
cial palaces are as wide as some of the
streets of Boston or old Italian cities,
and the stairs could accommodate
twenty men abreast. In some of the
larger structures there are six or eight
elevators constantly ascending and de-
scendiug, and a glance downward seems
like looking into the bottomless pit
The Produce Exchange has ten of these
elevators, large, well tested, and secure
from accident. Until 1868 there wa
not a single really tall commercial
building in New York four or five
stories, and occasionally six, were a.
high as it would pay to build. The
upper stories even then were almos
useless, as few cared to climb SO high
The introduction of elevators changed
all this, and the upper stories are pre-
ferred by many by reason of the better
light and ventilation, and sometime.
because of the magnificent view. The
Post building on Beaver street anC
Cyrus w. Fields Washington building
facing the Battery, give particularly
fine views. The most costly OF thest
commercial buildings is that of well
known life-insurance company, OF
Broadway near Cedar street, which
originally cost 81, 000, 900, and recen
extension costing another million. Th'
signal service corps here occupies q
tower on the roof. and the janitor hai
another, and his children have aplay
ground an acre in extent one hundred
and twenty-five feet above roaring
Broadway. The company provides TO
itsaenants a law library of seven thou
sand volumes, and the Insurance Clul
and Downtown Law Club have thei
rooms there. The president OF tn
company, by the way, receives o salar.
of S37, GOO year.